New Line will be making 2 Hobbit movies. Probably it will be The Hobbit and a movie that connects it with Fellowship of the Ring. I can't imagine splitting The Hobbit itself into 2 movies.

My understanding is two films: The Hobbit, and another covering the period between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring, with things like Gollum meeting the Dark Lord, Aragorn's pursuit of Gollum, and Gandalf snooping in Dol Goldur.

That one will be especially interesting, as there is far less text to base it on. Jackson will have to interpolate a great deal and create the dialog from whole cloth. (One of the things that impressed me about LoTR is how much of Tolkien's dialog Jackson was able to leave in.) My first question when I heard Jackson was to exec produce wasn't "Who will direct" but "Who will write the screenplay?"
______Dennis